Re: The meaning of "po-faced"?

: : : The Guardian: "...remembering his darling mummy, po-faced in her monster knickers, unable to laugh, cough or sneeze." I run across this expression again and again, but haven't been able to precisely understand it from context. Synonyms, anyone?

: : It means wearing a disapproving, stern expression. It is often applied to a person who remains stern-faced when everyone else is enjoying themselves. The Collins Concise dictionary says it's derived from 'poor-faced.'

: I always understood that it referred to the fixed expression that a poker player tries to adopt in order to hide his/her delight or disappointment at the cards they have been dealt.

A Google-search suggests it can have both meanings. The Word Detective has: "Po-faced" dates back to around 1934 and means, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it (and who would know better?), "having or assuming an expressionless or passive face." Rounding out a rather unpleasant portrait, the OED lists the synonyms "priggish, narrow-minded or smug."